• Home

Dolphin therapy for autistic children

More than 40 years of working with marine mammals may have perfected a human-animal teamwork to perform excellently for families and children searching for a natural, unique experience.

Yet, to the 59-year-old Russian, Alexander Zanin, the man behind the great performance of dolphins at the Dubai Dolphinarium in Creek Park, it is not enough.

He and his training team are putting together a pipeline for Dubai Dolphinarium for assisting autistic children in UAE through a dolphin-assisted therapy. It takes time though because Dubai Dolphinarium has to set up a separate pool for the autistic kids.

Zanin, the head of the six-man team training and teaching five dolphins and four seals to perform before excited crowds of children and their families four times a day, told Khaleej Times that he had experienced dolphin-assisted therapy working greatly for autistic children while working in Turkey before.

He said that a German family is visiting Dubai Dolphinarium on a quarterly basis for three years now just to expose their autistic child to a dolphin-assisted therapy. “Many special needs kids all over the world have gone for therapy by the sea. Others improve from zoo psychological therapy. We will have a dolphin-assisted therapy as a Dubai Dolphinarium programme in the days to come.”

“There have been authentic reports of autistic children, who have experienced up to 65 per cent remission after undergoing a series of dolphin-assisted therapy. I know this will work in the emirate. Dubai Dolphinarium will by then not be just an entertainment place but a therapy centre for dolphin-assisted therapy for autism,” he said.

Zanin has worked with Dubai Dolphinarium since its preparation stage in 2007 to develop the dolphin and seal show programme, training the seals and the dolphins, including Ksyusha, one of the dolphins performing at the Dolphin Show. “We have been teaching two dolphins form the Black Sea and three from the Pacific to do the tricks.”

He said teaching dolphins or any other marine mammal takes four months to a year and the first thing being taught is to communicate with them not to be aggressive.

“Dolphins, which come in 55 species, from small ones to the giant Orca, are unpredictable. They bite you if you touch them because they are normal predators. “It is not a joke developing special communicative system for dolphins or for any marine mammal like seals and sea otters. They can make an untrained person go crazy.”

After long years of working with dolphins and seals, he said they have become one social group with his team and the dolphins depend on each other abiding by special rules.

“I teach the dolphins by trying to touch them but will see to it that my hand is two centimetres away from them. By teaching them special signs, the dolphins will start learning after lots of trials that I want to touch them.”

He was just a teenager when he was especially drawn to the career of teaching and training dolphins and other marine mammals in Russia.

“I got a nasty bite on my arm from the dolphins when I started. “I will not say I am a dolphin lover. I am not. We can like different animals. The most important is we must respect them. This respect later becomes a personalized bonding between me and the dolphin.”

This dream of assisting the autistic children will not be far off. Even now, the seal and dolphin show is drawing huge crowds even from the GCC countries.

Aseel, 10, came all the way from Saudi Arabia with his family to see the live dolphin show. “I came to see the live show with my family. I saw a dolphin show before but my family was not with me.”

His parents, Tariq Abdul Jabar and Mawahah, told Khaleej Times that they have been in the emirate for a three-day holiday and the dolphin show has always been the priority.

Coming to Dubai with four of their kids, Tariq said that he brought his family to the show because the dolphins’ live performance is but among the few natural entertainment that is left now for the children.

A Kuwaiti couple, Adel Ali Al Sharraj and Khadija Ali Al Anssary, also brought their four kids all the way from Kuwait to watch the dolphins and to shop.

“We have seen a dolphin show in Cairo before but the kids will see the it for the first time here in Dubai,” Adel said.

Dubai Dolphinarium will certainly double its regular 2,500 weekly guests or maybe more once it introduces its dolphin-assisted therapy in the future.

lily@khaleejtimes.com